硬叶糙果茶 ying ye cao guo cha

Thea gaudichaudii Gagnepain, Notul. Syst. (Paris) 10: 127. 1942.

Shrubs or trees, 3-5 m tall. Young branches grayish brown; current year branchlets straw colored, thick, glabrous. Petiole 6-7 mm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 5-7 × 2.5-3 cm, rigidly leathery, abaxially pale green and brown glandular punctate, adaxially dark green, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially elevated and adaxially impressed, secondary veins abaxially raised and adaxially obscure, base broadly cuneate, margin widely and shallowly denticulate, apex obtuse to rounded. Flowers axillary or subterminal, solitary or paired, subsessile. Bracteoles and sepals nearly all caducous after anthesis, leathery, outside yellow velutinous, inside glabrous. Petals and stamens not seen. Ovary ovoid, ca. 3 mm in diam., densely tomentose, 3-loculed; styles 3, distinct, 7-9 mm, whitish woolly almost to apex. Capsule grayish, subglobose, ca. 3 cm in diam., 3-loculed; pericarp ca. 2.5 mm thick when dry, furfuraceous, splitting into 3 valves; columella persistent, stout. Seeds dark brown, semiglobose, ca. 1.5 cm in diam. Fl. Dec-Jan, fr. Aug-Sep.

Forests. Guangxi (Fangcheng), Hainan (Wenchang) [N Vietnam].